Mental Wellbeing in The Workplace
Considering the average person spends more than 90,000 hours of their life in work, we’d say it’s pretty important to make sure that you’re enjoying your work life. Being able to step back from work and take a breather is easier said than done, so we’ve asked our team about what they do to keep their mental wellbeing box-fresh. Here is our 12-step guide to maintaining your mental wellbeing:
#1 Don’t be a couch potato
As soon as the clock ticks into lunch time and your belly is full, it’s easy to kick back on the couch and sit scrolling on your phone for the remainder of your break. But what good is that to you as a highly motivated winner? We recommend getting out of the office at lunch time, even if it’s for half an hour or so. You’d be surprised what a change in scenery can do to your mindset.
#2 It’s all in the 40 winks
Is there really a worst feeling than going to bed late? When you realise you’re up in 5 hours for work? Or even when your alarm goes off and you feel you’ve done nothing but toss and turn? We’ve all been there. For this nightmare, we prescribe 3 tips to get you the right amount of sleep. These tips will ensure you’re bursting with positivity and motivation for the day ahead, which in turn, will allow you to smash your day.
The Calm App. The Calm app is an absolute godsend if you feel like you need rocking to sleep. The Calm app is the #1 app for meditation and sleep. You can have a calming podcast narrated by Matthew McConaughey (and who could argue that his voice isn’t soothing), or you could drift away to the sound of a babbling brook. You can even try it out for free for 7 days if you’re not completely sold.
Magnesium vitamins. Not only does magnesium play a critical role in brain function (helping to suppress your inner urge to be a mood hoover), it also has benefits against type 2 Diabetes and aids sleep by regulating your neurotransmitters (calming your system ready to hit the hay). You can get your hands on this in most supermarkets and drug stores.
Lavender. Besides it smelling like heaven in a bottle, Lavender is a classic remedy for aiding sleep. You can buy Lavender pillow sprays for buttons, I won’t go into details on how to use it…it’s in the name. You can also buy Lavender essential oil and add a few drops to your diffuser and turn that baby on about an hour before your bedtime (thank me later).
#3 Chief Executive Officer of Bark Operations
That’s right… get yourself an office fluffer. Here at Strategic People, we are graced with the presence of a 13-year-old Shih Tzu called Hunny. She doesn’t get up to much. She mainly nods off between rubbing her face on the floor, and if the sun is out, she finds the best patch of sun on the carpet and lays there just soaking up the rays. If you’re not completely bought by the whole idea, here’s some more persuasion for you. Below is a picture of our CEOBO at work:
#4 C to the B to the D
Get some CBD oil in your lamp, it’ll keep you burning. If you haven’t heard about CBD already, you must be living under a rock. This little bottle of Zen is proven to reduce stress and anxiety. You can buy CBD products online, the price varies with the strength of the CBD. This really is worth the money. Not only has CBD been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, but it also can relieve pain and helps to relieve seizures (if this is something you suffer from). In summary, CBD can give you that little extra ability to keep your cool.
#5 Get your steps up
It is recommended that we should be doing 20 minutes of exercise a day. Whether this is a brisk walk or a spin class at the gym, it doesn’t matter. It is simply no good to be going from home, to car, to office, then repeating this for your journey home after work. Our lucky bunch at Strategic People are put through their paces once a week in their free class at a local gym. You can burn between 90-200 calories whilst walking for 30 minutes (this varies by the speed you’re walking at). To keep an eye on the amount of steps you’re doing a day, get the Steps app. If you don’t really enjoy exercise and have struggled to get into the gym, a good alternative is swimming.
#6 Change it up
Just by moving to a different desk every week, you will reduce the feeling on your work being monotonous. Just minor changes like this can make a big impact on your day without you even thinking about it.
#7 Wellbeing Days
Every quarter our team is given the afternoon off to go and practice wellbeing. This could be anything from going to a spa for a rub down, going to see family you don’t get to see very often, or even charity work. There aren’t many rules to wellbeing day, it can be a group activity or individual, as long as it’s improving your wellbeing, you’re on the right track. Does your business organise wellbeing days?
#8 Remote Working
You don’t have to rely on swanky internet café’s in a city centre that serve smoothies & vegan snacks to rely on as an alternative work space. There are thousands of big name coffee shops that are dotted all over the country now, making remote working that much easier. Even better, working from home in your PJ’s (this feels so wrong, but feels so right).
#9 Digital Detox
We are all guilty of spending too much time of our phones. If you’re reading this thinking ‘no I don’t!’… just check your screen time in your phone settings. Scrolling is never-ending so of course we get sucked into the world of social media. A good way to stop yourself from becoming square-eyed without having to delete the apps, is to rearrange them so that they are further away from your main home screen. You can even put them all into a folder and drag them to a page of your home screen that is furthest away. As well as our phones leading to us procrastinating, our optical health is also at risk of deterioration. Glare from screens is becoming a massive problem for our minced-pies. The worst culprit is a bright screen in a dark room. When using your phones, make sure all lights are on to reduce the glare of the phone on your eyes. You can now also buy funky blue light glassed that block harmful glare from screens.
#10 Agua sín gas por favor
Keeping hydrated is an up-hill battle. The importance of drinking water is reiterated again and again but we always seem to put it off and opt for a coffee. We mean to drink enough water, we really do… but then we spend half the day dashing to the loo! Unfortunately, water is essential for your brain function, so if you’re dehydrated you’re more likely to be drowsy and less productive with your day. Also, if you’re a big lover of carbohydrates (I’m aware this probably applies to every human, ever), it’s important that you should know that our bodies need water to breakdown carbohydrates to release energy! In a nutshell… get your 2 litres down you everyday and you’ll be sound!
#11 Energisers
At Strategic People, we have made energisers a key component to our weekly plans. A Monday morning energiser activity with the team after our meeting, really does blow the cobwebs away from the weekend. Even if it’s a ball passing game, it still sharpens up your mind and switches your brain out of sleep mode.
#12 ‘Comfies Day’
Here at Strategic, every Friday is our dress-down day. Anything goes really, so Fridays are fast becoming a day to look forward to as we get stuck into work whilst in our comfies.
Well, that’s our 12 tips to maintaining good mental wellbeing in the workplace. I can guarantee that by practicing these little nuggets of wisdom, you’ll see a dramatic change in your motivation, productivity and positivity in the workplace, which in-turn will then automatically be carried into your home life. But in the event of these changes not occurring, I don’t really have any more advice. So this is your lot. I hope you took something positive from our guide. If you like what you’re hearing about Strategic People’s way of life, and think that you’d enjoy working in our vibrant, fast-paced environment, then good news! We’re hiring! Email [email protected] for more info on our recruitment consultant opportunities.
As you were. SP//
